China is one of America’s biggest trading partners and creditors. Richardson, if confirmed, would have a very difficult time dealing with the Chinese, as they all remember the inhumane, cruel and unusual treatment Dr. Lee received while incarcerated. The Obama administration needs to reassess this nomination.

Guy M. Wong
Sacramento, Calif., Dec. 6

To me the whole issue is not about race but about the person who did not have courage to apologize for his mistake (“Commerce Secretary Appointment Draws Ire From Asian Americans,” Nov. 28). What happened to Dr. Lee has also happened to people of other races: whites, Hispanics, blacks. My concern about Richardson is that he misses very important traits of a leader. Have courage to apologize when you made a mistake.

Anand Shaw
Sunnyvale, Calif., Dec. 9]

Michael Wong Responds
I liked Andrew Lee’s article (“Milk’s Man: Kelvin Yu Plays Milk’s Campaign Staffer Michael Wong in New Biopic,” Nov. 28). However, I was not “Milk’s Man.” I was one of hundreds of people who helped Harvey Milk throughout his political career.

I grew up watching the castrated Asian male in the media, so when I read the casting description of the Michael Wong character (after filming started), I was not happy. As a long time civil rights activist for minorities, women, seniors, gays and lesbians, I did not expect to see my character described in such way. I look at that incident as a hiccup.

As I told Mr. Lee and others, the movie was a brilliant masterpiece told ingeniously that gave an excellent vision of Harvey Milk politically and personally. The Milk movie staff treated me and my character with the utmost respect and appreciation. I have no complaints about the movie. I am proud that I played a hand in it.

Michael Wong
Via e-mail, Nov. 28

Oppression Nothing New
Oppression is embedded throughout society, but that doesn’t change the issue here, which is that a certain group of people are being denied a right that others have (Voices From the Community, Nov. 21).

For the anti-gay marriage folks who feel they are being “forced to accept” something they believe in: I’m sure there were plenty of white people in the Deep South during the pre-Civil Rights era who felt equally indignant that blacks were forcing them to sit together on the bus, plenty of men during the suffrage movement who resented that women were imposing their desire to vote on them, many Americans in 1965 who just didn’t believe it was right that race-based quotas on immigration should be eliminated and Asians given the same opportunities as Europeans. How dare these disrespectful minorities impose their will and try to change the way things were.

Dan Kwong
Santa Monica, Calif., Nov. 26

Correction:
Dr. Larry Shinagawa’s name was misspelled in a Nov. 21 article on a new study about Chinese American communities.
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Watching the film, “Milk,” it was very clear how intense the discrimination against the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender) community has been. They are a community of heroes.

It was also fascinating to see that there is another progressive activist with the same name and about the same age as myself. Hello to Michael Wong #1. Thank you for your courage in coming out and speaking out. You were fighting for your community’s rights at the same time that I was fighting for peace and for the hippie community. And both of us are featured in a film about our respective struggles (I appear in “Sir, No Sir!” about the GI resistance movement against the Viet Nam war, website: http://www.sirnosir.com/)!

Despite harassment, discrimination, physical attacks, and sometimes even murder by some members of the straight community, the LGBT community has largely responded to us with compassion, reason, and dialogue. When I see how to this day some people – including some Asians – vehemently oppose even the basic right for LGBTs to marry, I feel ashamed. Their rights are everyone’s rights, and they have always supported Asian rights. I say again, the LGBT community is a community of heroes. Thank you all for your courage.